It does feel to us as if this is the quiet before the storm – that Manchester United are keen to do one more major piece of business after Pedro joins the club. When we say ‘major’ we mean ‘marquee’ or ‘megabucks’. Because, with Manchester United playing catch up, the purse strings have been well and truly loosened over the last year.
They spent well over £100m, net, last summer but this year the bill is effectively only around £20m so far. Because the sales of RvP (£4.5m), Nani (£4.5m) and the impending departures of Angel di Maria (for around £44.5m) and Rafael da Silva (around £7m) will amount to around £60m in income. With an outlay hitherto of around £80m, Manchester United have effectively hardly touched their kitty. Tabloid reports have once more surfaced, over the last day, about Manchester United making a move for Gareth Bale.
Marca said:
Man United to push the boat out for Bale
This was based on a report by the ever speculative Daily Express, which stated:
MANCHESTER UNITED will not give up on their world record pursuit of Real Madrid star Gareth Bale.
But Rafa Benitez refused to be drawn on such speculation by saying:
“Gareth Bale is a great player for us and I know that he is happy. I’m not going to talk about any offers for him. He’s going to have a good season with us”,
For our money, he’s the best signing that United could make this summer.
Even better than Ronaldo.
Why? Because, at 25, Bale can help restore Manchester United as a dominant long term force in the domestic and European game. But we have to say that this deal is very unlikely to happen this summer. Perhaps, if Bale has an average season in Spain then he may move on next summer.
We do feel that he will eventually return to England and Manchester United has to be a decent bet for his next destination.
But, for now, United will most likely have to pursue other targets if they really want to add another marquee name in this window.
